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Getting Real: Three Stories
By Emily Alford
All of us transgendered people know shame, or guilt, for being what we
are. All of us also know that "something is going on" that renders us
free of shame and guilt alike. We're not the freaks we used to be. Here
are three anecdotes that speak to that point.
First story: A few weeks ago I went to one of the major conventions of my
profession, the Organization of American Historians. Just naming the
group may make it sound like a Nerd's Nightmare, but I always enjoy the
OAH. One reason is that everybody there has a common subject (much like
a gender convention). Another is that there is a general sense that
expanding the idea of being American is a good idea. Black history,
women's history, gay history, Native American history: all these and more
get a serious hearing. It's not a matter of "politically correct." It's
one of saying that people count, whatever they happen to be, and that
people of every sort have a past worth knowing about.
Add us to the list, as two separate developments told me. One was finding
Professor Patricia Bonomi's study of Lord Cornbury, the eighteenth-century
governor of New York who is a minor gender-community icon, on display at
the book exhibit. It's published by one of the most prestigious of
academic houses, the University of North Carolina Press. Bonomi, who is
emerita at New York University, has done her best both to rescue Cornbury
from the scorn/amusement that his supposed cross-dressing has visited upon
his memory and to discuss the general problem of gender in his time. I
bought the book and intend to review it here soon. The immediate point is
that Bonomi's book takes the whole issue out of the realm of freakdom and
into that of legitimate and serious inquiry.
The other development was finding a professional session on the general
issue of gender crossing and boundary transgression. It was to be
expected. The theme of the whole convention was "crossing boundaries."
The paper that really caught me was by Professor Joanne Meyerowitz of the
University of Cincinnati on the issue of trans-gender people in relation
to Albert Kinsey, of the Kinsey report. Outing myself, I wrote to
Meyerowitz to ask for a copy of the paper. She promises I'll get it,
together with an article she already has published. She is working on a
history of transsexualism in twentieth century America, and on the basis
of the paper I'm looking forward to her book. I'll have more to say when
the paper and the article get to me. The point of it: transgendered
people have a history that is worth the knowing. We've made a history,
and that is even more worth knowing.
Story two: Just after I returned from the convention I flipped on my
television and found that the cellest Yo-Yo Ma was doing a program on the
Bach cello sonatas. (Okay, I don't watch Jerry Springer.) I'd seen him
discuss that kind of music before and dropped what I was doing to watch.
He turned out to be working with a Japanese dancer whose name I could not
catch. When the dancer spoke of how his parents accepted his love of
feminine beauty, for himself, my ears and eyes opened. In the second
half of the program, Ma played Bach, and the dancer, fully en femme,
danced. He had made it plain that he delighted in performing womanhood,
and Ma, one of the best musicians of our time, delighted just as much in
providing the music that made the performance possible. No freakness,
just two high level artists working together. Vaguely I knew that the
dancer was male. But the performance was superb.
Story three: This morning, a Saturday, I switched on my radio to
National Public Radio's Weekend Edition. For people who don't know that
program, it's hosted by a guy, Scott Simon, and at the end of the hour it
always includes a long cultural spot. This time the spot was taken by
Jan Morris. When she transitioned early in the 1970s it struck me almost
as hard as when I learned about Christine Jorgensen at the age of six. I
was in New Zealand at the time, and my source was a gushy article in Time
Magazine. Yes, it could be done.
Jan Morris |
Morris broadcast today from the BBC studios in Porthmadog, North Wales.
I know that part of the world and could probably find her house. Once I
found myself standing next to her in an airport duty-free shop. But the
famous deserve to be left alone, so I did. The key is that on today's
NPR broadcast not a word was said about her having been transsexual.
Simon introduced her as "simply one of the best writers in the world."
He and she talked about her most recent book, and she read from it. And
that was that.
What's the moral? It would be nice to say that things are just "changing"
and "getting better." But history doesn't happen like that. James Morris
may have had an advantage. He grew up in the tolerant context of the
British upper class. He outed himself to his spouse immediately, and to
his children as well as he could. But he still had to be brave and say
(with Martin Luther) "here I stand." The people Joanne Meyerwitz is
studying had a much more difficult time of it. Most insisted on
maintaining secrecy, and in their context that was right. But her respect
for them as pioneers is palpable. Lord Cornbury may not have been one of
us at all. So what?
We have a history anyway. We'll have more. But we are the ones who will
make it.
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